The least water we could find there was 4 fathoms, which bears from the point S.E., and is distant 1½ mile.

John Duncan, Duncan's Travels

To have demolished and rebuilt the walls, would have been a very costly expedient, and as the least of two evils, the painter's brush was resorted to; here and there however, above some of the windows, the black wreathings of the smoke are still discernible through the white covering.